Meet Lyne: Building Bridges Between Families, Teachers and Cultures

From Beirut to Singapore, with chapters in Casablanca, Saigon, Algiers, Almaty and France along the way, Lyne has turned international relocation into a way of life. Today she channels that experience, and a deep instinct for helping others, into her work with families and teachers at Axiom Academic.

An identity shaped by a life across cultures

Ask her to define herself in three words and she hesitates. Yet one thread runs through everything she does: empathy, openness and commitment. She looks at “the world and the people in it with a positive eye”. These qualities were forged move after move, between France, her native Lebanon, and an expatriate journey that has taken her family across three continents.

That journey is precisely what makes her so effective in a global role. Lyne has lived what internationally mobile families live: switching school systems, switching languages, rebuilding a support network from scratch in a new country. When she talks to a parent in Singapore, Dubai or anywhere in between, she is not reciting theory. She has been there.

Reach out to people, ask for help when you need it: you will make wonderful encounters.

Lyne Santina, Global Tutoring Strategic Advisor and Senior Partner Singapore

A “teacher mum” navigating multiple school systems

The experience that marked her most? Being what she calls a “teacher mum”, a role she has held since her children were born and one that taught her, first-hand, how to bridge school systems. When her family left Morocco for Almaty, Kazakhstan, there was no school teaching in her children’s languages. Her children, then aged three and six, spoke only French and Arabic. So she taught them English at home, through books and games, until they were ready to join an English-speaking classroom.

Once they were enrolled at the American school in Almaty, the juggling act continued: “I kept up their French and Arabic at home while they were learning English and Russian at school,” she recalls. Four languages, two school cultures, one household. It is the kind of multi-system balancing act that thousands of international families recognise instantly, and it is exactly the situation Lyne now helps other parents manage.

That “teacher mum” role followed her through several relocations, built a unique bond with her children, and cemented a passion for education and teaching that she still nurtures today through online lessons.

Building communities wherever she lands

Lyne never limited herself to supporting her own family. In every country, she instinctively built bridges between newcomers by creating or running community groups. In Casablanca she managed Casa’ Nanas, a group that became a local institution. In Singapore she launched Tips Singapour to share practical advice and good addresses (and she has just created Tips Paris +). On leaving Vietnam she founded Inspiration et Évolution, a group whose “magical” energy, as she puts it, still feeds every member at its monthly gatherings. Over the years she also served in expat welcome associations: president of Alger Accueil, co-founder of Saigon Accueil, active member of Accueil Singapour. Back in Paris, she joined the team of FIAFE, the international federation of these welcome networks, as a natural continuation of all those volunteer years.

“After the verb to love, to help is the most beautiful verb in the world,” she likes to quote. Behind all these communities lies a life mission: being there for others.

The farewell surprises those groups gave her at each departure moved her deeply: a personalised song written by her friends in Algiers, a comic book made in Vietnam in which she appeared as the caricatured heroine page after page, a board of keepsake quotes offered by the Casa’ Nanas.

A natural fit at Axiom Academic

It was almost inevitable that Lyne would end up on the Axiom Academic team, where she now leads the development of the Singapore hub and supports families well beyond it.

Her role? Making the right connections. “I help parents find the teacher who truly matches their needs, after listening carefully to their situation. I help teachers find assignments suited to their skills and their schedule. And I help Axiom Academic grow, drawing on my experience and my network.”

Because she has navigated French, American and other school systems herself, she can decode a family’s real needs quickly: which curriculum the child is in, which language the support should happen in, what a transition between systems will actually require. For an international audience, that lived understanding is what turns a first conversation into trust.

The encounters born from these connections are a constant source of joy. She still gets emotional recalling the day a mother sent her a WhatsApp photo of a student holding his diploma, with one simple word attached: thank you. “I approach my work with the same intensity as my volunteering. It is the logical continuation of my daily life. Gratitude!”

Turning every country into a living memory

In her home, every object tells a story. On her, fragments of past expatriations travel with her daily. “Every day I carry two or three countries with me,” she laughs, pointing to a bracelet from Morocco, a bag given by her friends in Algiers with a Saigon keyring clipped to it, a scarf from Kazakhstan, or the colourful tropical umbrella offered by her friends in Singapore.

Even her passion for tea was nourished by travel, from Morocco to Asia. “A tea at the end of the world”, reads a painted board she brought back from Morocco, a phrase that took on its full meaning at the other end of the world, where she discovered the depth of the tea ritual.

Lyne representing Axiom Academic at the presentation of the Expat Communication barometer at the Quai d’Orsay, the French Ministry for Foreign Affairs. (December 2024)

Passions and small rituals

When she has time just for herself, Lyne loves sorting, filing, organising: a need for order that soothes her. Or she dives into her playlist and lets the music carry her back to memories, like the Alger Accueil choir and friendships built around the world.

Her advice to internationally mobile families

Lyne repeats it with conviction: the key is attitude. “Lower your expectations, or better, have none. Let yourself be amazed by what you discover and live every moment fully. Reach out to people, ask for help when you need it: you will make wonderful encounters.”

A message of wisdom that sums up her journey and her vision of life abroad: see the positive, build bridges, and leave a human imprint wherever you go: “sow kindness without waiting for the harvest”.

Want to talk to Lyne?

Now based in the Paris region, Lyne oversees the Singapore hub and contributes to Axiom Academic’s international development.

She is also your dedicated point of contact for online tutoring requests (and sometimes in-home lessons) in countries where Axiom Academic does not yet have a local Country Manager.

If you would like advice or want to discuss your family’s needs, you can reach her directly:

• By email: lyne.s@axiom-academic.fr
• By WhatsApp: +33 7 52 06 81 71
• Through our website: via our contact page

She will be delighted to reply and point you towards the solution that fits your situation best.

How Axiom Academic supports international families

Axiom Academic provides private tutoring for families around the world, in Singapore and far beyond: academic support across school systems (French curriculum, IB, British and American programmes), online or in person depending on the location, with teachers carefully matched to each student. Advisors like Lyne listen first, then connect you with the right teacher, and every engagement starts with a first lesson covered by a satisfaction-or-refund guarantee. Get in touch through our contact page and tell us about your child’s needs.